Fake! No Yobe indigene won $400,000 in World Chemistry competition

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It is not true that a Yobe State indigene by the name Dagona Usman Umar came second and won $400,000 in an AkzoNobel Chemistry competition.

A trending rebuttal, and also confirmed by Everyday.ng, came through a research by an unnamed gentleman. His findings: “The gift amount ($400,000) involved set a doubt in my mind, which set me to seek a confirmation. Europeans don’t play with money like that. Even the Nobel Laureate price which is one of the highest gift prices when shared between the beneficiaries in different categories is nothing close to the winning price of $600,000 in this Chemistry competition.

“First I looked up the AkzoNobel Imagine Chemistry annual contest started by AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals, the last competition was in 2019. Nothing for 2020 came up.

“I also observed that there are no cash awards in the contest, just Joint Development Agreement.

“The competition is not for individuals but companies winners of the 2019 competition were Sironix Renewables, Seattle and Ionomr, Vancouver, B.C.
(https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2019/imagine-chemistry-two-startups-win-novel-contest/(

“Lastly on this first point, contrary to the claim of an exam, the AkzoNobel competition is research based.

“Secondly, I looked up the names (Winner: Adalet Adam of Turkey, Second: Our own Dagona Usman Umar, Third: Nicolas Mateo of Argentina). Unfortunately no such name as Adalet Adam turned up and only 2 Nicolas Mateo from Argentina that turned up. One is a singer the other an actor. No name came up as having come third in a Chemistry competition recently. The only name that turned up on Nigerian related websites and unsafe weblinks was our very own Umar Dagona. For that kind of price, CNN and other world media would certainly have carried it.

“Thirdly, I looked up the name of the Secretary Mr Arden Peter Flank and no such person with these 3 names came up. For a recent competition in a country like Netherlands and with such amount, the name should not be limited to Nigerian related webpages alone. Even the phone number does not exist, using a phone tracker tool. +31 208 909 530

“I still want to leave the room open for the possibility that such a competition truly took place and, perhaps, I have not looked at the right webpages. But as far as my search has so far revealed, I would take this claim a 5% credence.”

A similar web surf by Everyday.ng came up with similar findings, even though the story was published by a few reputable publications.

It appears they all belong a lie allegedly started by a prominent indigene.

One of the newspapers reporte: “Yobe State indigene who represented Nigeria at the World Chemistry competition beat candidates from many countries to secure the second position.

“Umar Usman Dagon, from Gashua town of Yobe state, took part in the “Imaginechemistry” competition and made it to the top five that appeared in the final round.

“He eventually made it to the second position, winning the sum of $400,000.

“Dagona obtained NCE in Chemistry Education at Yobe State Umar Suleiman Collage of Education in Gashua town.”

Even former Vice President Atiku Abubakar appeared sucked in as a tweet a day after the story broke last week Monday attests to.

He tweeted: “I celebrate Umar Usman Dagon, from Yobe state who won $400k in the World Chemistry contest. Mr Dagon is another proof that Nigerian youth are an invaluable resource with capacity to excel in various spheres of human endeavours.”